Welcome to the IBM Service Management blog.A variety of authors who represent different
parts of IBM will discuss a range of Service Management topics such as service
availability and performance, green IT, IT asset and financial management, IT
governance, service delivery and process, storage management, SOA management,
enterprise asset management, and service assurance for service providers.

We'll discuss industry trends and happenings, analyst
perspectives, new product and solution announcements, support and services
offerings, upcoming events, helpful resources, and heroes in the broader IBM
Service Management network. This blog provides multi-directional communication
with the public, and we encourage and look forward to your feedback, thoughts,
and questions. For extended sharing, check out our new IBM Service Management community.

I'm Tiffany Winman, the
IBM Service Management community and social media program manager, and my blog
topics tend to focus on communities, people, companies, heroes, and stories in
the broader Service Management and Tivoli "ecosystem" and the use of innovative social
technologies to facilitate online social networking and collaboration. When I'm
not blogging on group blogs such as Service Management, Tivoli, Pulse, and Web 2.0 Goes to Work,
you can join me in riveting conversation ;) on my individual blog.

I have some big news to share. You thought world tours were only reserved for the Stones, Springsteen and other big-name acts? Well, I guess service management has hit the big time, because the IBM Service Management World Tour kicks off in mid-August with gigs across the U.S., Europe and Asia.

I think this is a perfect follow-on to Pulse a merry band of IBM experts comes to a town near you (hopefully) and delivers in-depth presentations on the latest IBM solutions and approaches in service management, storage management, enterprise asset management, and System z. Its a series of hard-hitting one-day events held in smaller settings where you can get some serious face-to-face time with service management gurus. Im helping one such expert with his presentations on the Tivoli Service Management Center for z and consolidating Linux workloads on z (no snappy title yet), and Im impressed with his focus and clarity.Even I get it!By the way, if you missed my profile, thats what I do, write presentations, podcasts and website stories for Tivoli.

Anyway, the tour begins in Boston on August 12, with events in 13 more US cities; the Europe and Asia schedules are being finalized now. You can check out what we have so far and even register for the road show at the World Tour page. You can always ping your favorite IBM sales rep, who is sitting by his/her laptop yearning to hear from you, or ping me, Bob Pickard. In any event, I'll be blogging new news on the tour as it comes along. Party on, Garth.

As names go, neither IBM Tivoli Unified Process nor its acronym ITUP is among my top 10.They just dont fire the imagination or clearly describe its purpose like, for instance, Conan the Barbarian or Floyd the Barber.Now those are names that say something.

Yet more than 17,000 people are registered users of ITUP, a Web-based service management tool, which is now in its eighth release. And to be fair, it would be hard to come up with snappy name that captures what ITUP can do, which cant be described in a few words.

For example, ITUP is often touted for its ability to make ITIL actionable. Say what?

Okay, lets break it down.ITIL theInformation Technology Infrastructure Library -- is a few volumes worth of best practices on how to manage IT infrastructures, based on hard-won, real-world experience.Many of us in Tivoli have gone through a few days training to become ITIL-certified, which gives you a general understanding, a nice certificate and healthy respect for it.

But the challenge with ITIL has always been, how do you take that general wisdom and apply it to real-world situations at a particular organization?Thats where ITUP comes in.It takes ITIL from concept to reality by mapping those best practices to the people (by their specific roles), processes, information and technology (right down to the names of specific IBM solutions) that customers use, or can use, in their organizations.It serves as a roadmap to help customers understand how to actually implement ITIL best practices and a service management approach and see the real value they can gain.It even shows how ITIL best practices can fit in with other models, such as CoBIT and eTOM.

ITUP is based on the collective experience of thousands of IBM engagements, is continually updated to keep current with the latest version of ITIL, and its free.Theres also a product version of ITUP, called ITUP Composer, which takes customers beyond the understanding phase into the actual implementation phase.

I think an ITUP demo is worth 1,000 words, especially mine, and fortunately, weve got a good one.Check it out, and then maybe we can start a naming contest for the tool.Maybe ITUP the Implementer?ITUP the Eighth and Counting?ITUP the Actionable-izer?This name stuff is harder than I thought.

Going to Pulse? Here's your chance to ensure you get the information you want and need!

IBM is hosting a one hour panel, "Tales from the Cutting Edge of Service Management," with IBM customer panelists at Pulse. Tell us which of the questions below would you like us to ask the panel the most? Are there any topics we missed?

Green

·What are you doing to have a more energy efficient data center?

·How have you determined your energy usage and what your energy management goals should be?

Virtualization / Cloud

·How are you managing the different business services and IT environments across a virtualized environment?

·How do you monitor all the different business services and IT components across a virtualized environment?

·How do you think Cloud Computing will affect your business?

Service-oriented architecture (SOA)

·How have you set up a SOA environment?

·Sixty-three percent of clients expect SOA application to impact their service management investment.

·What is your company doing to extend into that environment?

·How have you set up a SOA environment?

·Sixty-three percent of clients expect SOA application to impact their service management investment.

·What is your company doing to extend into that environment?

·How have you set up a SOA environment?

·Sixty-three percent of clients expect SOA application to impact their service management investment.

·What is your company doing to extend into that environment?

ITIL

·What benefits have you experienced in applying the ITIL framework in your organization?

Storage

·What steps are you taking to manage and store the proliferation of data?

·How do you ensure that the data your business runs on is where you need it and properly archived for accessibility and compliance?

·What steps are you taking to manage and store the proliferation of data?

·How do you ensure that the data your business runs on is where you need it and properly archived for accessibility and compliance?

Security

·How are you managing access control and security of your business critical systems?

·What are you doing to address data security?

Implementation of Service Management

·What has been your company's key challenge in implementing Service Management and how did you overcome it?

·Once I’m ready to make that leap and say, okay, let’s start down the path to Service Management, what should I plan to spend to do that?

·Do you see more value for implementing Service Management in any specific area of the business or is it consistent across the board?

·How did you develop your implementation strategy for Service Management?

·How was your implementation of Service Management particular to your industry?

·Could you talk about why a company might be inclined to start a Service Management initiative now rather than later?

Future of Service Management

·What changes do you see ahead for Service Management?If so, how?

Metrics

·What are the top key performance indicators against which you measure IT Operations success? for example: service uptime, improvement in MTTR, reduction in customer calls/incidents, SLAs with lines of business, internal SLAs, customer experience, etc

·What Service Level Management Metrics help to enable corporate governance?

Business Value of IT

·Do do you track IT costs per service?Is this information used for service planning/justification and/or chargeback of related costs to the lines of business?

·How does Service Management help your company to minimize the functional processes of technology and instead focus on how IT contributes to your core business?

·How do you ensure that your IT and business objectives are aligned?

·Do do you track IT costs per service?Is this information used for service planning/justification and/or chargeback of related costs to the lines of business?

Asset Management

·Have you seen an increase in asset up time as a result of your asset management implementation?

·What measures have you taken to ensure that your company's physical and IT assets are managed optimally, in a way that reflects business goals and strategies?

Benefits of Service Management

·How does Service management help your company achieve and maintain significant distinction in an ultra-competitive marketplace?

·How does Service Management help you to attract new customers, measure and increase the satisfaction level of customers you have?

·What benefits have you seen from using Service Management?

·How does Service management help your company achieve and maintain significant distinction in an ultra-competitive marketplace?

·How does Service Management help you to attract new customers, measure and increase the satisfaction level of customers you have?

IBM will be showcasing many of its innovative security solutions at RSA conference and hosting many keynote sessions, pedestals, demos, customer appreciation events, and more. You can find out more in the following ways:

It’s Good Friday, and it not only has been a good, but a GREAT week. Did you hear? IBM made the list of Top 50 social brands for March 2009: “The Social Radar Top 50 measures the most social brands by the number of unique topics of conversation. These brands are top of mind for consumers and bloggers today.”

If you haven’t noticed by now. IBM’s presence is growing more and more in the social media arena. Below are some of the hot topics lighting up this space this month.

Ewwww, that almost sounds as decadent as eating chocolate. If you’re into networking with SOA strategists and architects, learning about real-life examples and benefits of SOA in action, then this event is for you. Dressed in character as an Imperial Servant, an IBM virtual guide will lead a tour of Virtual Worlds and share how SOA can solve architectural challenges, adding immediate value and business flexibility.

Personally, I never really got hooked on American Idol, but next month IBM is releasing a Software Development reality TV series at the 2009 Rational Software Conference that I'd love to watch! Yup, I'm a nerd. :) This stuff fascinates me. I'm looking forward to the drama, laughs and intrigue. Get an overview of the new reality TV series and view a trailer with the videos below:

Overview: IBM Rational's Walker Royce discusses the Reality TV series as he fills you in on some of what you can expect to see at RSC 2009.

We have a great new IBM addition to the Twittersphere this week: Dave Bartlett, IBM Vice President of Solutions for Industry Transformation. Dave has been blogging for awhile, but only recently joined Twitter under the handle @davebart.

When IBM first kicked off the Dynamic Infrastructure announcement at Pulse 2009 conference, we heard some rumblings on whether Dynamic Infrastructure was just another executive buzzword or if there was real meat behind "the concept."

Doug McClure summarized the feeling well in his blog: “While this is great for executive level folks, I think we needed to drive this message into consumable and actionable things that lower level technical attendees could take back to their companies. They may be the ones who need to execute and show how previous or planned investments could help their company become smarter and more dynamic.”

After IBM’s announcement yesterday on new Dynamic Infrastructure offerings, critics will be hard-pressed to wonder whether Dynamic Infrastructure is actionable.Not only did IBM announce new products and services in the areas of Information Infrastructure, Virtualization, Service Management, and Energy Efficiency, but they also demonstrated how these solutions are helping three of our clients--the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation, Tricon Geophysics and the United States Bowling Congress--build new, more dynamic infrastructures to help reduce costs, improve service and manage risk.

A key piece of the announcement is the IBM Service Management Center for Cloud Computing, which now includes new IBM Tivoli Identity and Access Assurance, IBM Tivoli Data and Application Security, and IBM Tivoli Security Management for z/OS, for Cloud environments. I don’t know about you, but all that’s more meat than this vegetarian can handle. :)

To continue driving home the Dynamic Infrastructure success, IBM is sponsoring a variety of events for the public to learn more. Register for a free, local Pulse Comes to You event to see how Service Management is a key component for enabling a DyanmicInfrastructure for a Smarter Planet.

This week IBM kicked off the Impact conference from May 3 - 8 in Las Vegas at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. In addition to focusing on Smart SOA and WebSphere, themes will concentrate on Smart, Economic Climate, Cost Optimization & Agility, Cloud computing, and Service Management.

The Impact conference is using social media in some of the most creative ways I’ve seen at IBM yet! They have a cool social media game where you can earn points for participating in Twitter, blogs, videos, etc. Hmm, I wonder how many points I can earn? Check out these links to learn more:

IBM Service Management is a big theme at the conference since Smart SOA makes business processes easy to change, but those changes create the demand for a Dynamic Infrastructure to be adaptive and support those business processes. IBM Service Management anticipates how business processes shift their pressures on the infrastructure, enabling the infrastructure to adapt quickly while enabling smart choices for a smarter world.

As Robert LeBlanc said at Pulse 2008, you can have Service Management without SOA, but you can’t have SOA without Service Management. Al Zollar, IBM General Manager of Tivoli Software, will give a keynote on May 5 during the Impact general session, discussing how a smarter planet requires a dynamic infrastructure based on IBM Service Management capabilities.Expect to hear announcements on ServiceManagementCenter for Cloud Computing, ITCAM for SOA Platform, and IBM Service Management for Healthcare.

IBM Service Management has the following activities at Impact:

18 IBM Service Management experts and executives will be available for one-on-one meetings with clients.

The IBM Impact 2009 conference wrapped up last week and was a huge success. It has set the bar for all future IBM and IT events yet to come! While lots of great events and activities took place at the conference, of notable attention was the use of social media around the conference. See the Impact communities page for a list of social media tools such as blogs, Twitter, Flickr, widgets used.

James Taylor and Andy Piper won the Impact social media game for being the most active in the social media environments.

The Impact team displayed Twitter conversation on the #ibmimpact hashtag in various places throughout the event and the tag made it into the top Twitter trends on Day 1 of the conference.

As a Tivoli-er, I was keen on following the Service Management conversations around IBM Impact.

WebSphere CloudBurst ApplianceA big focus was on the WebSphere Cloudburst Appliance, a new IBM SOA appliance for deploying and managing SOA in a private cloud. It integrates with Tivoli data center management software and Rational development tools. It also ensures security of data and environments via an encrypted vault concept.

Al Zollar on Service Management, SOA, and a Smarter PlanetI really enjoyed watching the tweets during Day 2 of the conference when the Twitter crowd gave Al Zollar, General Manager of IBM Tivoli Software, a warm welcome during his keynote on Service Management, SOA, and a Smarter Planet. A few of the tweets included:

Fabian Marquez: "Al Zollar from Tivoli did a great job explaining Dynamic Infrastructure and Service Management."

James Governor: "Al Zollar from Tivoli talking about Vertical industry service management ie new IBM Service Management Solution for Healthcare."

Al will be giving an encore of his talk as he keynotes at the Pulse Comes to You Event on May 19 in New York. Pulse Comes to You (PCTY) is a worldwide tour. Check the PCTY Website for a free event near you.

If you are friends of Tivoli experts on Twitter, you may see #tivtour tweets quite a bit this week. See my recent write up on this topic to learn more about the mystery event. Also, see Twitter Search for #tivtour on Twazzup
for a running stream of related tweets and photos. The Tivoli Tour runs
at many IBM locations this week and in Brazil on May 29. So you can
expect to see more Twitter conversations in the near future.

Two great IBM
conferences were held in Las Vegas this year--IBM Pulse and IBM Impact.
However, I have to say that I truly envy the IBM
Rational Software Conference taking place from May 31-June 4,
since it will be at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Florida (where Pulse 2008 was held).
The effervescent ambience in the air is unparalleled. The awseome fountains are
a key contributor.

Tivoli fans will be pleased to know
that several Service
Management topics will be covered at the conference since the integration
of development and operational tools, data, and processes is essential to
improving the success rate of application deployments and improving service
quality. The topics will cover ways businesses can improve the integration of
development, test, and operations to simplify high-quality application
deployment, enhance provisioning, streamline problem diagnosis, and enable
effective service management. The
conference will include the following Service Management topics:

General Manager sessions

Al Zollar, General Manager of IBM Tivoli
Software, will participate in three executive sessions:

Description of how to use Rational test scripts with ITCAM for
Transactions

Overview of how to leverage the ITCAM products to help resolve
problems earlier in the application life cycle

Tivoli Birds of a Feather session

“Bridging the chasm between build,
deployment and production”--Rich Johnston

Abstract: Today’s IT departments have more
systems to manage, more locations to support and more mission-critical
applications to build, deploy and maintain than ever before. In many
organizations, the processes employed to move applications from build, to
deploy, to production phase can be manual, time-consuming and error-prone. The
data, tools, and workflows are not well integrated or automated resulting in
inefficient processes which inevitably lead to slower time to market, long
resolution cycles and even loss of revenue. This session offers a chance for
attendees to discuss issues, challenges and solutions for bridging development
and IT operations across different aspects of the application and service
lifecycle.

Abstract: The inability to quickly
identify application performance bottlenecks can lead to system downtime and
unnecessary cycles spent firefighting defects. See how ITCAM
can provide monitoring data from operations needed to better understand
performance characteristics prior to relase and speed correction of defects.

Abstract: Integration across application
development and configuration management tools is critical for complete
component life-cycle managmenet. With a Tivoli/Rational integrated solution,
customers can experience total application management from development to
deploymentt to operation.

---------------------

For those who can’t
attend the conference in Florida, check out http://www.remotersc.com for other
opportunities to participate in the Rational Software Software conference
experience.

Recent IBM news on “Smarter Cities” is invoking fond
memories of one of my favorite courses at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute: Politics
of design taught by Professor
Langdon Winner. Some of my favorite discussions during this course focused
on urban theory and planning and environmentally and ethically responsible
innovations. A few of my favorite personal readings included:

While innovations and technologies always fascinate
me, personally I’m most interested in the political, socio-cultural aspects of
Palmisano’s statement below:

“All the ways in which the world
works come together in our cities. They are the proverbial melting pot -- not
only for immigrants, but for systems, blending them together to engender new
forms of commerce, of culture, of science, of life and of society. Which is why
cities -- more than states, provinces or even nations -- are likely to be the
crucible for human progress and evolution in the coming century.”

Smart cities require smart people and deliberate thinking. How will SmarterCity designs and innovations enable and constrain our attempts
to build ethical, sustainable, humane systems and relationships? What are key
philosophical and socio-cultural issues to consider in this endeavor?